Peter Ortiz

American like Me reflects on the life of first-generation Americans through personal anecdotes of their struggles with capturing an American identity and connection with their traditional heritages. The reoccurring theme among the stories is the struggle to discover the personal identity and facing the dilemma of not resonating with their true authentic selves. Like countless stories in the book, the author Ferrara’s story is one of the millions in the United States that capture the raw truth of the struggles of being split between two cultures while trying to navigate their way through childhood and adulthood in what seems like an alien world. America Ferrara is a first-generation Honduran American who has had enormous success as an actress and activist. In her chapter, Ferrara counts her struggles to find her self-identity and connect with her Honduran heritage. Her approach to telling her story highlights the negative aspects of her childhood as a first-generation American, her fath...

The Art of Spearfishing The hunter keeps relaxed, and the hunted keep vigil – for a game of thrills, for a game of fishing The practice of spearfishing dates back hundreds of years. During the prehistoric period, cave paintings depicted spearfishing by primitive humans. Although it isn't as common today, it still gets a lot of attention for appearing inhumane to the fish. Despite this, spearfishing is an environmentally friendly method of fishing. It differs from commercial fishing, which casts a wide net in the sea and captures anything it encounters. As spearfishing is highly selective, only the targeted fish is involved in the hunt. If done correctly, spearfishing can be exhilarating and a great way to experience an ' alien ' world and meet countless sea creatures.  If you participate in the heart-pounding sport, you will be exhausted, but you will feel accomplished simultaneously. Nonetheless, it can be very difficult to get started if you aren't sure where to begin...

Reading the preface to American Like Me stimulated a feeling of nostalgia from my childhood. Like Ferrera, I struggled early In my life to capture my American identity – constantly feeling like a stranger in a land I called home. Learning to speak english late in my childhood didn’t help, and jumping from one identity to another created a sense of disarray. In addition to being lost, I also experienced conflict about how to show up, whether I should be a Latino or an American. At home, I was a soccer-loving, spanish speaking Latino – and at school, I was a baseball-loving, english-speaking American. Split between two cultures, I yearned to be accepted, so I chose to read this book – to learn how other children of immigrants eventually found their identity in America. With some of the stories, I reflected on the undertone that Padma Lakshmi took in struggling to accept her roots, particularly her religious roots. I remember early in my life being consumed by my pastoral responsibiliti...

Summer Analyst This past Summer, I receive an invitation to intern at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the New York Madison office to work as a Summer Analyst within the Corporate & Investment Banking division. Excited and dumbfounded by my luck, I eagerly accepted and celebrated – thinking I had made it to a world of prestige, wealth, and rooftop parties. Instead, it was an experience that shattered the biases that I had developed from unrealistic media dramas. Hopefully, this blog post sheds some light on the average life of a financial analyst intern in the world's finance capital.  Among all the titles I inherited during the Summer, here are my top three in no particular order: Excel Aficionado Market Researcher Fixated Pitchbook User Now let me give a high level overview of each title. Excel Aficionado The first week at the office consisted of 8-hour training sessions with an ' Excel Guru, ' who gave us a deep dive and training sessions on advanced excel syntax. The ses...